This is exactly what happened to Pecola in the end – having been forced to experience the continual sensation of cognitive dissonance between her desired image of herself, on the one hand, and what happened to be her actual appearance, on the other, she became overwhelmed by its own ‘ugliness.’ In its turn, this naturally prompted Pecola to begin hating herself with passion. Would you not want to see me being happy?” (Morrison 179).Īs psychologists are well aware of, if a person’s deep-seated desires remain unaddressed for a while, it becomes only a matter of time before his or her behavior develops to be utterly erratic. There is the memorable episode in the novel, where Pecola prays to God while asking him to turn her eyes blue: “Please, God, let me have them (blue eyes). As the above-provided quotation implies, Pecola was predetermined to end up experiencing the sensation of self-hatred, as the logical consequence of aspiring to become someone that she could never be.Įssentially the same can be said about the actual significance of Pecola’s mental fixation on the idea that once provided with blue eyes, she would be able to attain happiness in life. Hence, the character’s unhealthy obsession with ‘whiteness’, extrapolated by her unconscious conviction that by drinking milk she would be able to look more like blond and blue-eyed Shirley Temple: “We knew she (Pecola) was fond of the Shirley Temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet Shirley’s face” (Morrison 23). Rather, Pecola’s misery had to do with the fact that, while growing in America during the thirties, she could not help becoming increasingly attracted to the euro-centric ideals of beauty. Nevertheless, it was not sexual abuse or poverty experienced by this character, which contributed the most towards bringing about her ultimate demise. The most explicit indication that this was indeed the case can be considered the novel’s scene, in which Pecola ends up falling victim to rape (by her own father, Cholly). There can be only a few doubts that the novel’s most tragic character is Pecola Breedlove – an impoverished Black girl, who never ceased suffering from being abused by her own parents and by just about every other member of the community. The reason for this is that, even though the novel’s sub-plots are concerned with the years following the Great Depression, the main themes and motifs of The Bluest Eye continue to resonate with what happened to be the realities of a contemporary living in America. In my paper, I will aim to expose the actual mechanics of how it is being done in regards to the 1970 novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. with the anxiety of self-loathing – hence, preventing them from being able to attain a social prominence. After all, the country’s socio-cultural discourse continues to be explicitly euro-centric, which in turn endows the representatives of racial minorities in the U.S. This simply could not be otherwise, because even though America did officially part away with the legacy of racism, this country nevertheless remains innately racist.